Winter Appalachian Trail – Day 76 (7 miles)

We woke up at dawn for another day in the snow. I had mostly recovered from yesterday’s effort, and ready to go.
Because of the weekend I could not get a pair if snowshoes for 4 days, and the sisters were in a similar boat. I was also aware that we needed to change things up because walking through deep snow is unsustainable, but resolved to pushing through until then.

I got into my frozen socks that had slipped out from under my warm matt, and then stepped out if the shelter and into the snow.

The day began with us all taking turns breaking trail. It was fairly obvious that Rat was in a bit of a funk about the snow. I find it key to still enjoy the little things when the going is tough.

Pushing through the snow today was so much harder. It was just so bloody deep – the snow was constantly up to my thighs and waist.

After half a mile we reached a road and had trouble finding the trail on the other side. We waded through the thorns and bramble until we eventually found it. This is the first time that we have spent any length of time searching for the trail. I have to say it is extremely obvious where to go even in deep snow.

The next two hours were spent hiking 1.5 miles (2.5km). To say the least it was a battle.
The girls rang their parents about other options of getting their snowshoes such as overnight delivery. Instead their mum decided to take a trip down here from New Hampshire and to bring the much needed floatation devices. What a lovely thing, and much needed on our end. They were even bringing an extra pair for me (thank you to their sister, Story for loaning me hers!)! At the start of the day wanted to make it to a shelter another 14 miles down the trail. We scrapped this and started to road walk into town. We decided why waste our energy for such little gain we may as well recuperate today and head back in with the right equipment tomorrow.

After an hour or two of lovely and easy road walking we headed to the motel. The owner was extremely nice. He could not believe we were hiking and not only gave us a discount but let us into the room at 10.30am.

We had a shower and then headed straight for the pizza shop. I cannot describe how hungry we all were from working hard over the last couple of days.

After filling our stomachs, we headed back to our room and waited for their parents to arrive. We resupplied before heading out for dinner. It was lovely to see all of them catching up on the few months apart.

I was tired, and went to bed as soon as we got back.
Snowshoeing tomorrow!